'A US military intelligence report leaked to the corporate media makes the claim that the April 14 missile strikes carried out by Washington in conjunction with both the UK and France have failed to destroy the Syrian government’s alleged chemical weapons capabilities. It makes the implicit case for more extensive and deadly raids that could trigger a military confrontation with nuclear-armed Russia, which has troops in Syria backing the forces of President Bashar al-Assad.

The leaking of the report, which was featured by the New York Times under the headline “Missile Strikes Are Unlikely to Stop Syria’s Chemical Attacks, Pentagon Says”, and covered extensively by Reuters, came amid new reporting from the scene of the alleged chemical weapons attack that was the pretext for the April 14 missile strikes on Syria, exposing the incident as a fabrication.

Russian television broadcaster VGTRK interviewed a Syrian boy who featured prominently in a video posted by a “rebel” group that constituted the principal “evidence” of a chemical attack in the Eastern Ghouta city of Douma on April 7, which was invoked by Washington, London and Paris as the casus belli for an unprovoked act of military aggression carried out in flagrant violation of international law.

In the video filmed by the British and US-funded, and Al Qaeda-linked, “NGO,” the White Helmets, the boy is seen amid a chaotic scene of screaming adults and panic-stricken children being hosed down with water to counter the effects of the supposed chemical attack.

Speaking to the Russian television crew, 11-year-old Hassan Diab confirmed that he was the boy in the video. “Somebody was shouting that we had to go to the hospital, so we went there,” he said “When I came in, some people grabbed me and started pouring water over my head.”

His father, who like other residents of Douma said he had heard nothing about a chemical attack that day, told the Russian broadcaster: “I went to the hospital, walked upstairs, and found my wife and children. I asked them what had happened, and they said people outside were shouting about some smell, and told them to go to the hospital. At the hospital, they gave dates and cookies to the kids.”

The TV crew also interviewed medical personnel at the clinic where the video was filmed. One of them said that while people had turned up complaining of respiratory problems caused by dust from bombings in the city, he was surprised by the sudden influx of patients accompanied by the White Helmets film crew......'_________________'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.

April 19, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – In 2008, I had the chance to go to Syria. I even went as far as the Golan Heights and looked down into the then-peaceful country, but as I was already scheduled to travel to several other places in the Middle East, I thought I’d delay a trip to Syria until a later date. Now, of course, that opportunity is gone—the Syrian civil war has stretched on for years, hundreds of thousands of people have died, and the heightened involvement of the US, the UK, and France threaten to escalate the situation into a proxy war with potentially global implications. I spoke with British journalist Peter Hitchens earlier this week, and he informed me that “despair” was the most appropriate reaction to the events that are unfolding.

As I wrote last year when Trump ordered the first air strikes on Assad, the spectre of another Middle Eastern war unsettles me enormously—and not just because the combined involvement of Russia, Iran, Israel, and the US have transformed Syria into an unpredictable powder keg that could very well blow up in everyone’s faces. The simple fact is that modern Western wars in the Middle East seem to end particularly badly for Middle Eastern Christians. ISIS wiped out many ancient Christian communities, and Iraqi Christians have suffered far more in the past decade than they ever did under the brutish Saddam Hussein.

And it is important to note that Christians in the Middle East seem united against Western involvement in Syria. The Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch John X, Syrian Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch Ignatius Aphrem II, and Joseph Absi, Melkite-Greek Catholic Patriarch of Antioch, Alexandria, and Jerusalem, released a scathing response to the air strikes by the US, the UK, and France, calling them “unjustified…brutal aggression” and stating that the evidence of chemical weapon use was insufficient. The heads of all three major churches also called on Christians worldwide to stand up against war in the Middle East.

Now, the National Evangelical Synod in Syria and Lebanon has joined other Christian leaders in their condemnation, echoing the accusation that the charges being leveled against the Syrian regime with “fabricated” and “without legal justification,” and that the Western involvement in Syria was “in contradiction to the desire of the Syrian people.” The Presbyterians then asked churches in the West to “exert maximum pressure on their governments and diplomacy not to repeat those adventures that undermine the chances of stability awaiting our country.” The statement closes by saying, “As we declare this, we ask God Almighty to give our leadership, government and National Army all wisdom and steadfastness in the face of evil forces. We lift our prayers for a strong Syria that upholds the values of peace, human dignity and peaceful co-existence among all its components.”

These statements should make those banging the drum for war in Syria stop and consider the situation more seriously for a moment. It is often Christian communities in the Middle East that suffer horribly or are even wiped out when the West decides to spread democracy. They speak from sad experience—I spoke with a Syrian refugee several weeks ago who believes the instability and chaos now are far worse than anything that could be experienced under the Assad regime. In fact, nobody seems to have any idea who would replace the tyrannical Assad if he was successfully removed—it seems likely that an Islamist would take his place, which is hardly an improvement.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the Bush Doctrine, while well-meaning, was fundamentally flawed in a very important way: It presumed that all people, everywhere, yearn for American-style democracy and freedom. It turns out that in many places, people do not see democracy as a priority. They value their tribe, or their religious sect or faith, or their family, or their ethnic group far more highly. They see the world differently, and thus trying to impose a distinctly Western ideal on nations with radically different cultures is, as the Iraq adventure proved, a sure way of bringing misery and social collapse to other nations.

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Syrian Christians are speaking with a united voice: Stay out of our country. I do not pretend to be an expert on Middle Eastern geopolitics, and I do not pretend to understand all of the complexities of what is going on in Syria right now. I’m afraid that many of those who seem eager to dump bombs onto the country don’t understand them, either. But I can listen to the voices of people who have lived in that country their entire lives, and seem to be rather resolutely telling us that our warplanes will only make things worse for them._________________--
'Suppression of truth, human spirit and the holy chord of justice never works long-term. Something the suppressors never get.' David Southwell
http://aangirfan.blogspot.comhttp://aanirfan.blogspot.com
Martin Van Creveld: Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother."
Martin Van Creveld: I'll quote Henry Kissinger: "In campaigns like this the antiterror forces lose, because they don't win, and the rebels win by not losing."

Western countries are reportedly planning to bypass Russia’s veto at the UN security council over Syria by referring concerns about the suspected use of chemical weapons to the UN general assembly.

Russia has used its veto 12 times to block UN action targeting the regime of its ally, Bashar al-Assad.

In November, it used its veto to block the extension of a UN mechanism to attribute responsibility for chemical weapons attacks.

Western nations blamed the Syrian government for a poison gas attack on the town of Douma earlier this month, which killed dozens of people and led the US, Britain and France to launch 105 missiles targeting chemical weapons facilities in retaliation.

The Syrian regime and Russia deny involvement or the use of chemical weapons.
Douma chemical attack: Syria war in pictures

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Western officials are reportedly supporting the idea of turning to a rarely used diplomatic route in order to clear the impasse, known as “uniting for peace”, which would allow nine members of the security council to refer their concerns to a vote at the general assembly, bypassing Russia’s veto.

A two-thirds majority in the general assembly would then be required to agree upon an attribution mechanism.

“The Russian veto need not be the end of efforts for collective action by the UN,” Ian Martin, a human rights activist and former UN official, told The Guardian.

“The responsibility of asserting accountability for the use of chemical weapons, and for bringing an end to the horrors of the Syrian conflict, rests with the world community as a whole.”
syria-chemical-attack.jpg
A toddler needs oxygen following a suspected poison gas attack in Douma (Syrian Civil Defence/White Helmets via AP)

It comes as the United Nations special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, stressed that the latest territorial gains by the Syrian regime and its allies have not brought peace any closer to the country.

“We’re seeing in last few weeks, days ... that military gains, territorial gains and military escalation does not bring a political solution, has not brought any change. On the contrary,” he said.
Syria air strikes: US, UK and France joint military action

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On Monday, foreign ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) leading industrialised nations united to condemn Russia for what they said was ”a pattern of irresponsible and destabilising” behaviour.
Read more

They urged Moscow to help resolve the conflict in Syria and agreed to create a working group to study the Kremlin’s “malign behaviour”.

John Sullivan, the acting US secretary of state, called on Moscow to stop creating impediments to peace in Syria, and to play a role in ending the seven-year-long conflict.

“Russia must be a constructive partner in Syria or will be held accountable,” he said.

Speaking to reporters on the margins of the meeting, foreign secretary Boris Johnson said G7 ministers had agreed on the need to be vigilant about Russia.

“What we decided ... was that we were going to set up a G7 group that would look at Russian malign behaviour in all its manifestations – whether it’s cyber warfare, whether it’s disinformation, assassination attempts, whatever it happens to be, and collectively try to call it out.”

German’s foreign minister, Heiko Maas, said the meeting established “again that there will be no political solution in Syria without Russia ... and that Russia has to contribute its share to such a solution.”

‘OPCW Finds No Chemical Weapons at Syrian Facilities Bombed by US – Russian MoD’:
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201804251063884207-opcw-chemical-we apons-syria-damascus/
‘…The official further noted that thousands of people could have died if there was any chemical weapon on the sites that were attacked by the US-led coalition.
“Immediately after the attacks, many people who worked at these destroyed facilities and just bystanders without any protective equipment visited them. None of them got poisoned with toxic agents,” Rudskoy said.
He said the logic of strikes on alleged facilities with toxic agents in Syria was unclear, because if toxic agents had theoretically been stored there, tens of thousands of people would have died after the cruise missile strikes….’

Let’s hope they also get samples from the other two sites attacked.

There is also this:
‘US REPORTER VISITS DOUMA, FINDS NO EVIDENCE OF CHEMICAL ATTACK (VIDEO)’:
https://southfront.org/us-reporter-visits-douma-finds-no-evidence-of-c hemical-attack-video/
‘Pearson Sharp, a reporter of One America News Network has visited the Syrian town of Douma and found that all the locals say that the so-called April 7 Douma chemical attack had been staged by militants.
Such things happen when somebody has real sources on the ground or visits the site of the events.’

But it still won’t stop ‘Assad’ not doing it again._________________'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.

'GEOINT: The Compass Call is supposed to be one of America’s foremost electronic warfare weapons, but the EC-130s flying near Syria are being attacked and disabled “in the most aggressive EW environment on the planet,” the head of Special Operations Command said here today.
“Right now in Syria we are operating in the most aggressive EW environment on the planet from our adversaries. They are testing us everyday, knocking our communications down, disabling our EC-130s, etcetera,” Gen. Raymond Thomas told an audience of some 2,000 intelligence professionals.

While, for obvious reasons, we don’t know many details about the nature of the attacks on the EC-130s, we do know the Russians have done what one EW expert called a “good job” in several recent conflicts using EW. And the Russians are in force in Syria and provide most of the gear used by the Syrian military.

“The Russians have redone and reengineered their entire EW fleet in the last 20 years,” notes Laurie Moe Buckhout, a retired Army colonel who specializes in EW. After the Russians attacked Georgia, they concluded they needed to upgrade their EW capabilities, she says. “The Russians put in millions on upgrades after Georgia. They’ve ended up with killer capabilities, jamming in a multitude of frequencies for hundreds of kilometers.”

She also notes that the Russians may not have gone head to head against the EC-130s EW attack capabilities. They may have taken the much easier route of interfering with the Position, Navigation and Timing (PNT) or their communications gear, making it more difficult to fly the aircraft since crews would have had to rely on maps, line of sight and other techniques.

“The problem the EC-130s have is that, while they are jamming, the crews aren’t doing much else,” making them more vulnerable to attacks, she says. “They could have gone after the PNT or the comms.” The Russians “know all of our vulnerabilities.”

There are other problems US forces must cope with, says Loren Thompson, a well known defense consultant: “We’ve spent so much time fighting enemies in Southwest Asia who were technically unsophisticated that we are not up to speed on tactical electronic warfare.” Buckhout said Thompson has a point.'

The Yanks should have learnt from their Donald Cook experience!_________________'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.

‘OPCW Finds No Chemical Weapons at Syrian Facilities Bombed by US – Russian MoD’:
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201804251063884207-opcw-chemical-we apons-syria-damascus/
‘…The official further noted that thousands of people could have died if there was any chemical weapon on the sites that were attacked by the US-led coalition.
“Immediately after the attacks, many people who worked at these destroyed facilities and just bystanders without any protective equipment visited them. None of them got poisoned with toxic agents,” Rudskoy said.
He said the logic of strikes on alleged facilities with toxic agents in Syria was unclear, because if toxic agents had theoretically been stored there, tens of thousands of people would have died after the cruise missile strikes….’

Let’s hope they also get samples from the other two sites attacked.

There is also this:
‘US REPORTER VISITS DOUMA, FINDS NO EVIDENCE OF CHEMICAL ATTACK (VIDEO)’:
https://southfront.org/us-reporter-visits-douma-finds-no-evidence-of-c hemical-attack-video/
‘Pearson Sharp, a reporter of One America News Network has visited the Syrian town of Douma and found that all the locals say that the so-called April 7 Douma chemical attack had been staged by militants.
Such things happen when somebody has real sources on the ground or visits the site of the events.’

This is Pearson Sharp, mentioned above, on youtube._________________'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.

1. Here, the Washington Post acknowledges that since at least 2006 they were financing opposition groups.(1)

2. Here in the New York Times from 2010 they say Obama has renewed economic sanctions against the Syrian Government, remembering this was all before the trouble started in earnest in 2011.(2)

3. Obama in 2011 said Al Assad "must go."(3)

4. The New York Times in 2012 acknowledges the US is arming opposition groups, ie, mercenaries/terrorists.(4) Reuters, also in 2012, say that Saudi Arabia and Qatar are doing the same.(5)

5. A Pentagon document from 2012 talks of the "possibility of establishing a declared or undeclared Salafist Principality [Islamic State] in eastern Syria (Hasaka and Der Zor), and this is exactly what the supporting powers to the opposition want, in order to isolate the Syrian Regime."(6) (The US knowingly and willingly fomented the creation and expansion of ISIS.

'Russia’s envoy to the OPCW said it was crucial to avoid new false-flag attacks in Syria and that Moscow “won’t allow” US military action there, as he described details of Russian findings on the site of the alleged Douma incident.
New false-flag operations against Damascus are “possible, since our American partners are once again threatening to take military action against Syria, but we will not allow that,” Russia’s permanent representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Aleksandr Shulgin, said during a press conference in The Hague on Thursday.

The meeting was called by Russia’s OPCW mission and featured witnesses of the April 7 alleged chemical incident in the city of Douma. It highlighted the findings of Russian military experts, who were among the first to reach the site of the purported attack and locate the “munitions” that supposedly hit the residential buildings.

“Russian experts performed a detailed analysis of the information on the ground,” Major-General Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection (RKhBZ) Troops, said. “Two gas cylinders, allegedly dropped by the government forces from helicopters, were found in two apartments.”

The cylinders and the damage they supposedly caused did not fit the tale of an airstrike entirely, Kirillov said. One of the cylinders lacked any makeshift upgrades, such as fins, to make it usable as an aerial munition, and, surprisingly, it was not even deformed.

“An empty gas cylinder found at the top floor. The apartment was partially destroyed earlier by an aerial bomb explosion, parts of roof and outer wall were missing,” Kirillov stated. “Other walls were sprayed with shrapnel. It’s quite peculiar that the cylinder was not deformed, which doesn’t fit its purported fall from a big altitude on concrete floor.”

The other cylinder, while fitted with some crude fins, also remained in nearly pristine condition despite its “fall.” The device miraculously did little to no damage to the room it supposedly hit, besides a large hole in the ceiling, which, however, was unlikely made by the object, according to military specialists.

“The cylinder has partially retained impermeability and is almost undamaged, which is impossible after a fall from some 2,000 meters, the usual altitude used by the Syrian army helicopters,” Kirillov said. “A tail part of an unguided rocket has been uncovered on the roof near the gap in the ceiling. The munition was likely to make the hole, but we cannot rule out an artificial nature of the damage made to the roof, since we discovered a pinch bar at the stairwell of the building.”

The cylinder was likely hauled by the “authors of the staged video” from outside, the official stated, as “multiple chips and dragging marks at the stairwell” indicated. An apartment below was being used by its owner to breed chickens, and all the livestock miraculously “made through the so-called chemical attack alive,” according to Kirillov.

“Moreover, the RKhBZ troops have uncovered a booby-trapped chemical laboratory and chemical stockpile in the city of Douma, which was liberated from the militants. They’ve been presumably used by the terrorists to manufacture toxic substances,” the official said, adding that a chlorine-filled canister that was very similar to the purported munitions used during the Douma incident was recovered from the militant-run warehouse. OPCW-controlled substances, which can be used to produce mustard gas, have been also found there.

The Douma incident was featured in videos released by the controversial White Helmets group and spread through militant-linked social media accounts. It was seemingly taken at face value by the US and its allies, who promptly pinned the blame on Damascus and launched a massive missile strike on the country in “retaliation” on April 14. The attack came hours before the OPCW experts were set to embark on their fact-finding mission in Douma.

The experts have already visited the site of the purported incident. Shulgin, meanwhile, called on the OPCW to visit the chemical laboratories left behind by the militants to see for themselves who is actually behind the use of chemical arms in Syria.

“We urge the OPCW technical secretariat and experts to make use of their time in Syria and examine the undercover underground chemical laboratories of the militants, the terrorists, who used them, as we believe, to produce chemical munitions, including those used for all kinds of false flag attacks,” Shulgin stressed.'

The West will continue to use False Flag attacks, hoaxes and (im)pure lies to attack, rape and pillage sovereign countries, until they hit the proverbial brick wall of serious resistance, the nuclear option, 'MAD'._________________'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.

Trying to sabotage Iran nuclear deal? For Israel? Pompeo visits Saudi Arabia. United States accusing Iran of aggression and war crimes it is itself committing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjOm--lbSUM on @PressTV_________________--
'Suppression of truth, human spirit and the holy chord of justice never works long-term. Something the suppressors never get.' David Southwell
http://aangirfan.blogspot.comhttp://aanirfan.blogspot.com
Martin Van Creveld: Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother."
Martin Van Creveld: I'll quote Henry Kissinger: "In campaigns like this the antiterror forces lose, because they don't win, and the rebels win by not losing."

The timing of the attempted coup against Assad is very interesting as it came just as he was putting forward a process of democratic reform that would have opened up the political space. That is what the coup engineers (the 'Western / GCC Alliance') were determined to prevent as they wanted a total overthrow of the state and its replacement by one friendly to imperial / corporatist powers. Yes, Syria has long had a serious security state (as if UK US etc don't have one too!) which tortured and imprisoned people. Now we know why they had to have it - to protect their essentially benign and well-functioning state against foreign-sponsored salafist extremism determined to bring the entire edifice down and replace it with medieval theocracy. The terror unleashed on Syria has not come from Assad and the overwhelming majority of Syrians know this. It has been inflicted on them by nations such as UK, US, France, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Qatar, Turkey who care not a flying fart for the people of Syria but are engaged in their own evil money and power games and care not how many millions they kill.

What's your alternative to Assad?
The cappuccino quaffing democratic activists have long since vanished if indeed they ever really existed. The choice is, and probably always was, between stable and mainly benevolent government under existing constitutional arrangements, or a violent jihadist revolution aided and fomented by US, UK, Israel, Saudi, Qatar, Turkey aimed at the destruction of the state, general urbicide, and the dismemberment of the country into great power zones of influence. Personally I go for the former option and that means Assad. The others have nothing to offer but more death and destruction.

_________________--
'Suppression of truth, human spirit and the holy chord of justice never works long-term. Something the suppressors never get.' David Southwell
http://aangirfan.blogspot.comhttp://aanirfan.blogspot.com
Martin Van Creveld: Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother."
Martin Van Creveld: I'll quote Henry Kissinger: "In campaigns like this the antiterror forces lose, because they don't win, and the rebels win by not losing."

Less than two months ago the State Department hosted members of the White Helmets at Foggy Bottom. At the time, the humanitarian group was showered with praise for saving lives in Syria.

"Our meetings in March were very positive. There were even remarks from senior officials about long-term commitments even into 2020. There were no suggestions whatsoever about stopping support," Raed Saleh, the group's leader, told CBS News.

Now they are not getting any U.S funding as the State Department says the support is "under active review." The U.S had accounted for about a third of the group's overall funding.

"This is a very worrisome development," said an official from the White Helmets. "Ultimately, this will negatively impact the humanitarian workers ability to save lives."

The White Helmets, formally known as the Syrian Civil Defense, are a group of 3,000 volunteer rescuers that have saved thousands of lives since the Syrian civil war began in 2011. A makeshift 911, they have run into the collapsing buildings to pull children, men and women out of danger's way. They say they have saved more than 70,000 lives.

Having not received U.S. funding in recent weeks, White Helmets are questioning what this means for the future. They have received no formal declaration from the U.S. government that the monetary assistance has come to a full halt, but the group's people on the ground in Syria report that their funds have been cut off.

The group has an "emergency plan" if the funding is halted for one or two months -- but they are worried about the long-term freeze.

"If this is a long-term or permanent halt, it would have a serious impact on our ability to provide the same intensity and quality of services that we currently provide to civilians," said Saleh.

An internal State Department document said that its Near East Bureau needed confirmation from the administration to green light funding for the White Helmets in Syria by April 15th or the department would initiate "shut-down procedures on a rolling basis." That document also said that the department needed to be notified by April 6th that it could continue programs that focus on removing land mines, restoring essential services and providing food to moderate forces and their families or those programs would also have to be shut down.

However, U.S. government officials are not talking on the record about the date of the actual funding cutoff for each program, which is leading to confusion.

State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert has previously called the White Helmets "selfless men" and asked journalists to watch a documentary about their work. But the State Department did not respond to a CBS News inquiry earlier this week about which programs are still receiving funding, and the date for when certain programs will lose their funding.

President Trump put a freeze on the $200 million in U.S. funding for recovery efforts in Syria in late March. This freeze means that U.S. support for the White Helmets is not the only project in jeopardy. There are also many other stabilization efforts that are backed by the U.S. -- including the clearing of explosive devices, bringing back electricity, rebuilding schools, and getting water running -- that may end soon.

U.S. officials are working to see if there is a way to adjust existing funding to cover the costs for these projects. They are also trying to get other countries, such as Germany, to cover some of the costs. Earlier this year, at the Brussels for the donor conference for Syria, German Foreign Minister Maas pledged more than $1.1 billion to help people in need in Syria. But as of now, Germany has not officially committed to stepping in beyond this initial commitment.

Observers are also increasingly concerned about Syria's young people, who are more prone to radicalization if they don't get the security and support that they need. As a result of the fighting in the country, thousands of schools have been destroyed. The handful of schools that opened their doors again have received simple necessities like chairs, tables and blackboards from the U.S. -- but in most schools children are still sitting on the ground, and teachers are extremely hard to come by.

"The amount of U.S. support is very limited but it is better than nothing, so if that will stop, that will be a disaster. After ISIS they started to open the schools and if money stops, that will be done," said a senior member of the Deir ez-Zor city council. "Without education the people only have ISIS ideas."

This week, the State Department said it would continue to defend its partners on the ground in Syria when they announced the final operations to liberate ISIS strongholds in the country.

"The fighting will be difficult, but we and our partners will prevail. We will defend United States, Coalition, and partner forces if attacked. The days of ISIS controlling territory and terrorizing the people of Syria are coming to an end," wrote State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert. She did not write anything about the stabilization projects.

Meanwhile, much of Syria that has been cleared of ISIS control -- such as Raqqa, its self-proclaimed capital -- is still in ruins and almost impossible to live in.

"Raqqa is like a sick person in an emergency room. So the money or treatment should come faster than the routine way. He is not a normal sick person," Abdullah al-Arian, a lawyer in Raqqa advising the governing Civil Council.

Theresa May's husband's Investment Firm made a financial killing from the bombing of Syria

It is common knowledge that Theresa May’s husband Philip essentially acts as the unofficial advisor to the Prime Minister – a fact proven by the former Conservative MP for Chichester, Andrew Tyrie, who said during a Newsnight profile of the PM’s husband that “Philip is clearly acting as, informally, an advisor to Theresa. Probably much like Denis did to Margaret Thatcher.”

--- Article Continues Below ---

Whilst it is pretty obvious that almost all married couples act as informal advisors to each other in come capacity, Tyrie’s admission that the Prime Minister’s husband has such a great influence over his wife’s decisions is made all the more worrying by the fact that Mr May – who is a Senior Executive at a £1.4Tn investment firm – stands to benefit financially from the decisions his wife, the Prime Minister, makes.

The fact that Philip May is both a Senior Executive of a hugely powerful investment firm, and privy to reams of insider information from the Prime Minister – knowledge which, when it becomes public, hugely affects the share prices of the companies his firm invests in – makes Mr May’s official employment a staggering conflict of interest for the husband of a sitting Prime Minister.

However, aside from the ease at which he is able to glean insider information from his wife about potential decisions which could go on to make huge profits for his firm, there is a far darker conflict of interest that has so far gone undiscussed.

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Philip May is a Senior Executive of Capital Group, an Investment Firm who buy shares in all sorts of companies across the globe – including thousands of shares in the world’s biggest Defence Firm, Lockheed Martin.

According to Investopedia, Philip May’s Capital Group owned around 7.09% of Lockheed Martin in March 2018 – a stake said to be worth more than £7Bn at this time. Whilst other sources say Capital Group’s shareholding of Lockheed Martin may actually be closer to 10%.

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On the 14th April 2018, the Prime Minister Theresa May sanctioned British military action on Syria in response to an apparent chemical attack on the city of Douma – air strikes that saw the debut of a new type of Cruise Missile, the JASSM, produced exclusively by the Lockheed Martin Corporation.

The debut of this new – and incredibly expensive – weapon was exactly what US President Donald Trump was referring to when he tweeted that the weapons being fired on Syria would be “nice and new and ‘smart!'”

Every single JASSM used in the recent bombing of Syria costs more than $1,000,000, and as a result of their widespread use during the recent bombing of Syria by Western forces, the share price of Lockheed Martin soared.

Consequently, with the air strikes on Syria having hugely boosted Lockheed Martin’s share price when markets reopened on Monday, Philip May’s firm subsequently made a fortune from their investment in the Defence giant.

Lockheed Martin Share Price Before and After Syria Bombing April 14th 2018
It is obvious that weapons manufacturers such as Lockheed Martin stand to benefit financially from the sales and subsequent use of their weapons in war – and the dramatic surge in the share prices of defence contractors since the so-called ‘War on Terror’ began in 2001 are a testament to this grotesque fact.

The added fact that Investment Firms such as Capital Group are also profiting from these bloodbaths is also disgusting in itself.

But for the husband of a sitting British Prime Minister to be benefitting financially from the very decisions his wife, the Prime Minister, makes on whether or not to send British troops into combat, should make every single person in the entire country, and especially anybody who is still insistent on voting for the Conservatives, feel physically sick.

The Prime Minister took the decision to bomb Syria – without even so much as consulting Parliament – under the full knowledge that her husband’s investment firm would make a financial killing from the resultant bloodbath.

If this isn’t enough to make you sit up and take notice of just how disgustingly corrupt, and morally bankrupt the British Establishment truly is, then surely nothing will._________________--
'Suppression of truth, human spirit and the holy chord of justice never works long-term. Something the suppressors never get.' David Southwell
http://aangirfan.blogspot.comhttp://aanirfan.blogspot.com
Martin Van Creveld: Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother."
Martin Van Creveld: I'll quote Henry Kissinger: "In campaigns like this the antiterror forces lose, because they don't win, and the rebels win by not losing."

On Thursday 10th May 2018, an unprecedented exchange of strikes happened between Israel and Syria. The mainstream media, as well as some “alternative” media like Russia Today, were quick to relay the Israeli army version, according to which the Zionist entity “retaliated” to an “Iranian attack by Revolutionary Guards’ Al-Quds Force” consisting of “twenty rockets” fired at Israeli positions in the occupied Golan, four of which were “intercepted by the Iron Dome” and the others “crashed into Syrian territory”, no damage being recorded in Israel. Israel has reportedly responded to this unprecedented “act of aggression” by a “large-scale operation” that would have destroyed “the entire Iranian infrastructure in Syria”, in order to deter the Islamic Republic from any stray impulse of future strikes.

This narrative takes for granted the postulates, data and myths of the Zionist entity’s propaganda – which imposes permanent military censorship on the Israeli media, exposing any offender to a prison sentence; and reading the international media, one might get the idea that, like American economic sanctions, this censorship is extraterritorial – but none of them can withstand scrutiny.

The aggressor is undoubtedly Israel, who carried out more than a hundred strikes against Syria since the beginning of the conflict. After Duma’s chemical stage attacks, this aggresion intensified with attacks on the Syrian T-4 base on April 9, which killed 7 Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Following the US announcement of withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, new Israeli strikes targeted Syrian positions on Tuesday (May 8th) in the southern suburbs of Damascus, and Wednesday (May 9th) in Quneitra, in the south of the country. Undeniably, Syria has only responded to yet another aggression, with a firmness that has shaken Israel and forced it out of the muteness to which it usually confines itself.

The Syrian – and not Iranian – response consisted of more than fifty – and not twenty – rockets against four sensitive Israeli military bases in the occupied Golan, which caused material damage and even casualties according to Al-Manar, Hezbollah’s media. These were not reported by the Israeli press because of the draconian military censorship forbidding mentioning Israel’s initial aggression, more than twenty rockets fired on Israel, the identification of their targets and any hint to the damage inflicted, in order to reassure the population inside and allow the vassal Western capitals to shout their sickening refrain of the sacrosanct-right-of-Israel-to-defend-itself. The Lebanese channel Al-Mayadeen specifically identified the military posts struck: 1/ a military technical and electronic reconnaissance center; 2/ border security and intelligence station 9900; 3/ a military center for electronic jamming; 3/ a military spy center for wireless and wired networks; 4/ a transmission station; 5/ an observatory of precision weapons unit ; 6/ a combat heliport; 7/ the headquarters of the Regional Military Command of Brigade 810; 8/ the command center of the military battalion at Hermon; 9/ winter headquarters of a special alpine unit. And as this channel has reported, even Israeli journalists and analysts have expressed doubts about this unconvincing version according to which these massive strikes, unprecedented since 1974 and therefore unexpected, would have proved harmless. Moreover, as Norman Finkelstein pointed out, nothing has changed for Israel’s wars in Gaza from 2008 to 2014 despite the deployment of the “Iron Dome”, only 5% of the – largely primitive – Hamas rockets being intercepted during “Protective Edge”; and one of the best missile defense specialists, Theodore Postol of MIT, has already revealed the chronic deficiencies of this system. It is unlikely that it was able to cope better with the much more sophisticated Russian, Chinese and Iranian rocket launchers that Syria has.

The success of the Israeli strikes, which, according to Israeli War Minister Avigdor Lieberman, almost destroyed “all of Iran’s infrastructure in Syria”, is largely exaggerated: Russian military officials, whose radars have followed this fight in real time, announced that more than half of the 60 missiles fired by 28 Israeli F-15s and F-16s – as well as 10 ground-to-ground missiles – were intercepted. The Syrian army records 3 dead and 2 wounded, a radar station and ammunition depot destroyed and material damage to Syrian anti-aircraft defense units. The latter have already demonstrated their effectiveness against strikes from Tel Aviv, Washington, London and Paris, unlike the mythical “Iron Dome” whose main role is to reassure the Israeli population.

The very presence of Iranian military bases and / or large Iranian contingents in Syria is a fable: Iran has only a modest presence (essentially composed of military advisers, indeed from the body of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards), unlike Hezbollah or Russia. Robert Fisk points out that “an Israeli statement that the Iranians had missiles in Syria was surely made in concert with the Trump administration”, that the Iranian forces in Syria are “far fewer than the West imagines” and that all Israeli statements should be reported with the utmost circumspection. Any objective reporting on these events should resemble that of Robert Fisk: “The latest overnight Israeli air strikes, supposedly at Iranian forces in Syria after a supposed Iranian rocket attack on Israeli forces in Golan – and it’s important to use the “supposed” and not take all this at face value – must have been known to the Americans in advance.” Indeed, these so-called unexpected attacks had been announced for days by the Israeli army, which had already conducted a so-called “preemptive strike” – rather a provocation – on May 8.

The “red line” that this alleged Iranian presence would pose to Israel is belied by the fact that Tel Aviv has, since the beginning of the conflict, been steadily slowing the progress of the Syrian Arab Army and, using various pretexts (delivery of arms to Hezbollah, response to actual or suspected gunfire from the Golan Heights, etc.), assisting armed terrorist groups in any way possible: weapons, intelligence, airstrikes coordinated with ground offensives, medical care, etc. Israel, the only country in the world that officially does not fear anything (and indeed has nothing to fear) from ISIS, Al-Qaeda and the like, has seen the situation in Syria turn from a dream – see a myriad of terrorist groups tear down the only anti-Israeli Arab regime, back of the Resistance Axis, and bleed Hezbollah – into a nightmare – to face Hezbollah, Syrian and Iran forces more battle-hardened and powerful than ever, and allied with the Palestinian Resistance, Iraq and Yemen, as well as Russia –, is only continuing its destabilizing work under new pretexts, and more directly: Hassan Nasrallah, the Secretary General of Hezbollah, had announced that after the defeat of proxies in Syria, their sponsors could either give up or intervene more and more openly.

Iran, whose opposition to the racist and colonialist project of Israel has been a principle and even a dogma since the triumph of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, is not easily provoked into an ill-thought reaction, and has always preferred to act with patience for long-term objectives – let us remember its restraint after the massacre of Iranian diplomats in Afghanistan in 1998. The goal of Iran is not to carry out a simple reprisal operation to avenge his officers and soldiers deliberately (or accidentally, as was the case in Quneitra in January 2015) killed by Israel, but to work for the complete liberation of Palestine by putting an end to the illegitimate “Zionist regime”, just like the Apartheid regime in South Africa, which, by the way, collapsed after its military defeat in Angola and Namibia against Cuban mulattoes, then viewed with as much racism as Israeli Jewish supremacism considers Arabushim. As Hassan Nasrallah pointed out, Israel’s direct aggression against Iranian forces in Syria is a major turning point in the history of the Israeli-Arab – or rather, Israeli-Arab-Persian – conflict, and Israel must now get ready to confront the Iranian forces directly – whether in Syria, occupied Palestine or even elsewhere. Moreover, when the Iranian missiles enter the scene, they are launched from the territory of the Islamic Republic and with undeniable success, as shown by the strikes against ISIS at Deir-Ez-Zor on June 18, 2017, in retaliation for terrorist attacks in Tehran.

As we can see, the reality cannot be more different from the fable that has been propagated by the majority of the media. “Journalists” who tamely take over Israel’s talking points turn into IDF propaganda outlets and mere agents of Netanyahu’s “diplomacy of lies”. Israel is indeed constantly lying to the world – and, increasingly, to its own people. And when its reckless actions have disastrous repercussions, it publishes hasty and contradictory communiqués in which it presents itself both as a victim and as a hawkish punisher, while also claiming, through Lieberman and via Russia, to have no intention of stepping into an escalation and hoping things will stop there – proclaiming the success of its retaliatory strikes is also a way to say it does not want/need to go any further. The international media contented itself with repeating these statements immediately after the first attacks, without any critical distance. Rational actors like Iran, Syria and Hezbollah – or Russia – are not in such a hurry to speak out and confirm or deny other’s claims, leaving their opponents getting entangled in their lies, and trusting in the primacy of the battlefield that becomes more favorable to them day by day. Moreover, the fact that a bitter setback for Israel, which literally reverses the strategic situation, is transformed into a military success by Zionist and Atlantist propaganda, and combined with Israeli protests of non-belligerency, can only confirm the Resistance Axis in its choices.

Yoav Kish, a member of the Knesset quoted by Al-Manar, stressed that regardless of the author of the strikes and their results – that censorship forbade from mentioning –, it was a major shift in the history of the wars of Israel, which is being attacked from Syria. Indeed, the Golan military installations are now directly targeted as a result of Israeli aggressions, and not just the Israeli air force, which has already seen its finest – the F-16 – be shot down on February 10, 2018. The journalists and Israeli analysts also pointed out the psychological and economic repercussions of this incident, with more than 20,000 Golan settlers having had to hastily find their way back to the shelters in the middle of the night (how much will they be at the next escalation?), and the beginning of the summer period having been ushered in by a wave of hotel reservation deletions due to fears of a war between Israel and Iran. The Zionist entity, which unabashedly inflicts the greatest loss and damage to the Palestinians and its neighbors, is severely shaken by the slightest losses, unbearable for Israeli society.

The accusation against Iran is explained by essential factors (the inherent racism of Israeli society and its Prime Minister, who more willingly believe in a dangerousness of Persian Iran than in that of Arab Syria) and circumstantial – a refusal to assume the consequences of the suicidal policy of the Netanyahu government, which led him to a direct confrontation with the entire Resistance Axis, not to say with Russia. And most importantly, Israel wants to capitalize on Trump’s withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal to advance its main obsession, much older than the Syrian crisis, namely Tehran’s ballistic program, which it wants the West to end with, exploiting the perennial nuclear pretext – let us remind that the manufacture, possession and use of nuclear weapons are unlawful in Islam according to Imam Khomeini and Ali Khamenei, supreme authorities in Iran. Netanyahu has made it clear that a war with Iran is inevitable, and that it would be better to happen now than later. Since 2005, he vainly strives for the United States to launch it for him, but no negotiation, sanction or aggression will ever deter Iran from its course. And just as the Israeli strikes on April 9, which were supposed to encourage Washington, London and Paris to conduct severe strikes on Syria, ended in a bitter failure, Israel only worsened its own situation yet again and finds itself alone in the face of the disastrous consequences of its actions, to the extent of the blind arrogance that triggered them.

What about Russia? Netanyahu’s presence in Moscow for the commemoration of the 73rd anniversary of the USSR’s victory against Nazism, and reports that Russia would not deliver the S-300s to Syria, must not mislead us. Russia has invested far too much in Syria to allow anyone – be it Washington, Tel Aviv, Riyadh or Ankara – to reduce its efforts to nothing. Moscow said it would no longer tolerate Western strikes against Syria in case of a new chemical weapons masquerade, and that it is ready to provide Damascus not necessarily with the S-300 anti-aircraft system, but, according to Sergei Lavrov, with “whatever is required to help the Syrian army to deter aggression.” The current Syrian defense systems have already proven their worth – Including the Pantsir, which is much more suited to the needs of the Syrian army –, and allow to envision the day when Israel loses its only advantage, namely the air supremacy – that already was to no avail in 2006 against Hezbollah or 2014 against Gaza –, without which its supposedly “invincible” ragtag army would literally crumble. Israel’s use of ground-to-ground missiles for the first time, and the concentration of attacks on Syrian anti-aircraft defenses – IDF released the video of the destruction of a Pantsir S-1 system, probably inactive – proves that it is well aware of its limitations.

It is obvious that Israeli aggressions against Syria will be increasingly costly, both for the Israeli air force and for its internal military bases and population, because of the determination of Syria and its allies (Hezbollah and Iran) to respond to any aggression, of their experience and new capabilities, and of their successes on the ground. The Resistance Axis – of which Russia is not a part – is now able to face Israel directly on its own, with a united front and without fear of escalation. As for Israel, already overwhelmed by the peaceful demonstrations in Gaza that must culminate on May 15, it is not ready for war against a single member of the Resistance Axis, let alone against several of them simultaneously. The new equation imposed by the Syrian army on May 10 is more fearsome for Israel than the prospect of the loss of another F-16, as Damascus has shown its determination to wage war on enemy territory, and to strike the Zionist entity in its depth.

The Resistance Axis will soon have its eyes fixed on the occupied Golan, that Syria has never given up liberating by armed struggle – a right conferred by international law itself, this territory being recognized as Syrian by all the international community: any Syrian operation there is a legal and legitimate act of resistance against Israel’s 1967 aggression in and subsequent occupation, even without further provocation. As early as May 2013, Hassan Nasrallah announced Hezbollah’s participation in the opening of a new frontline in Golan. In March 2017, the Golan Liberation Brigade was formed by Iraqi Hezbollah, Harakat al-Nujaba, a movement backed by Iran and involved in the liberation of Iraq and Syria from ISIS. Today, Syrian strikes in the occupied Golan unquestionably open up a new chapter in the history of the Israeli-Arab wars, in which Israel will increasingly be forced into a defensive position. Are we going to see the IDF building a wall on the border of the occupied Golan to hinder any future invasion, as is already the case on the Lebanese-Israeli border to prevent Hezbollah’s promised incursion into the Galilee? Anyway, the next war against Israel will drastically change the map of the Middle East.

The Essential Saker II The Essential Saker II: Civilizational Choices and Geopolitics / The Russian challenge to the hegemony of the AngloZionist Empire
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The Essential Saker: from the trenches of the emerging multipolar world
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'Suppression of truth, human spirit and the holy chord of justice never works long-term. Something the suppressors never get.' David Southwell
http://aangirfan.blogspot.comhttp://aanirfan.blogspot.com
Martin Van Creveld: Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother."
Martin Van Creveld: I'll quote Henry Kissinger: "In campaigns like this the antiterror forces lose, because they don't win, and the rebels win by not losing."

Some ‘terrorists’, the West’s proxies, get the to live like lords in ‘captivity’. Doubtless get payed, as well!_________________'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.

The dirty War Criminal Luciferian Western regimes are still aiming to attack Syria. Until Syria and Russia start to hit back at the attackers, they seem intent on the same old tricks, knowing the MSM have they're backs. The MSM are a guilty as the ones who plan and fire the missiles and launch the aircraft._________________'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.

'...Five members still waiting for the cars to come back and pick them up were then killed by another air strike that completely obliterated the house. One of the female family members told Amnesty investigators:
"We buried them. There wasn't one body left intact. We took them out in pieces. We put the piece into plastic bags and we buried them''.
Those killed in the American air strike on the Badran family home were:
"1. Mohamed Ahmed Badran Ibn Mohammed, 40 (Shamsa's husband)

2. Daham Badran Ibn Ahmed, 50 (Shamsa's husband's brother)

3. Ismael Said, 55 (Sadeeqa's husband)

4. Ibrahim Said Ibn Ismael, 15 (Sadeeqa's son)

5. Khaled Badran Ibn Ibrahim, 52

6. An unidentified man

7. An unidentified man''
The surviving members of the Badran family returned to their neighbourhood and stayed with a neighbour while several members received treatment from a hospital nearby. By mid August they were forced to flee to the Harat Al-Sakhani neighbourhood in the Old City in search of a doctor. The Badran family hooked up with several other families with a view to escaping Raqqa. On 18 August they started their escape but didn't get far as they encountered several Isis members who fired upon their group of 65 killing two people. The group was forced to return to Harat Al-Sakhani.

Retreating back to the Old City further tragedy struck. Rasha, a member of the Badran family describes what happened next:
"So we went back to al-Sakhani. We had no other options. Two days later [on 20 August] we were bombed, both houses where we were staying got bombed. Almost everybody was killed. Only I, my husband and his brother and cousin survived. The strike happened at about 7pm. I fainted and when I regained consciousness I heard my husband's cousin, Mohammed, calling out. I could neither move nor speak. Then my husband and his brother found me. My husband was the most seriously injured - he had a head wound and blood was pouring from his ears. It was dark and we could not see anything. We called out but nobody else answered; nobody moved. It was completely silent except for the planes circling above.

We hid in the rubble until the morning because the planes were circling overhead. In the morning we found Tulip's body; our baby was dead. We buried her near there, by a tree.

Both houses were pulverised; nothing was left standing, there was only rubble. These were simple Arab houses, they were not sturdy.
I don't understand why they bombed us. Didn't the surveillance planes see that we were civilian families?''
Badran family members killed in the main house at Harat al-Sakhani by American and British air strikes were:

They were driven towards the stadium and Harat al-Badu by the Isis patrol to be used as human shields against Coalition air strikes. On 17 September, Rasha her husband and 22 others used the cover of morning prayers to mask the noise of their steps to escape by crossing the SDF front lines. After weeks of hiding and terror, never knowing from one moment to the next if they were going to be killed by a coalition air or artillery strike, Pasha and her husband had reached safety. They had lost their baby Tulip and 38 members of their family.

The story of the Badran family was all too common during the SDF conquest of Raqqa that began in early June 2017 and was supported by an unprecedentedly heavy bombardment by American, British and French forces.

On 14 October the Coalition issued a statement about the SDF truce with ISIS:
"We do not condone any arrangement that allows Daesh terrorists to escape Raqqah without facing justice, only to resurface somewhere else...''.
Yet on 15 October 2017 the remaining Isis forces in Raqqa, numbering several hundred, were allowed by the SDF and their American sponsors to leave the city in safety with large quantities of weapons and with complete impunity for their many crimes. Local residents have told Amnesty investigators that Isis fighters were allowed to evacuate before civilians. Jaira, a mother of two trapped in Harat Al-Badu told Amnesty:
"When we heard that there was a truce and we would be allowed to leave Raqqa, we thought this was for us, the civilians, but then when the buses came we realised they were for Daesh. We had to make our own way out of the city. I couldn't believe it, but we were happy to get out by whatever means."
The so called International Coalition that helped the SDF destroy Raqqa and kill thousands of civilians was largely an American affair supported by France and the UK. The U.S. had over 2,000 troops supporting the SDF siege of Raqqa while the UK and France had small numbers of special forces close to the front lines.....'_________________'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.

'...a diplomat in charge of the Middle East at the British Embassy in Washington – reports in a confidential diplomatic telegram of the first meeting of the “Small American Group on Syria” (United States, Great Britain, France, Saudi Arabia and Jordan), held in Washington on January 11, 2018.....'

'...In this five-page TD, he reveals the details of the “Western strategy” in Syria: partition of the country, sabotage of Sochi, framing of Turkey and instructions to the UN Special Representative Staffan de Mistura who leads the negotiations of Geneva. A Non Paper (8 pages) accompanies this TD in anticipation of the second meeting of the “Small Group”. It was held in Paris on January 23, mainly devoted to the use of chemical weapons and the “instructions” sent by the “Small American Group” to Staffan de Mistura....'

Another particularly interesting point is the 'instructions' given to UN Special Representative Staffan de Mistura._________________'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.

Major General Jonathan Shaw (pictured) said: 'Why would Assad use chemical weapons at this time? He's won the war'
A former head of Britain's Special Forces has challenged Theresa May's claim that President Assad was behind the chemical attack in Douma.

Major General Jonathan Shaw said: 'Why would Assad use chemical weapons at this time? He's won the war.

'That's not just my opinion, it is shared by senior commanders in the US military. There is no rationale behind Assad's involvement whatsoever.

'He's convinced the rebels to leave occupied areas in buses. He's gained their territory. So why would he be bothering gassing them?

Speaking exclusively to The Mail on Sunday, the ex-SAS and Parachute Regiment commander added: 'The jihadists and the various opposition groups who've been fighting against Assad have much greater motivation to launch a chemical weapons attack and make it look like Assad was responsible.

'Their motivation being that they want to keep the Americans involved in the war – following Trump saying the US was going to leave Syria for other people to sort out.'

His views were echoed by Admiral Lord West, former head of the Royal Navy, who said: 'If I was advising President Assad, why would I say use chemical weapons at this point? It doesn't make any sense. But for the jihadist opposition groups I can see why they would.

‘It was the right thing to do’: May says joining US and France in airstrikes against Syrian regime was the ONLY WAY to deter more chemical atrocities as she defends refusal to give MPs a vote and claims attack was ‘a success’
'But one must give Theresa May the benefit of the doubt and trust she has seen some unequivocal evidence which leaves no doubt that Assad was behind the atrocity.'

But the ex-commander of the Army's chemical weapons regiment, Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, said: 'A sophisticated nerve agent was used at Douma, not just chlorine. Only Assad has the capability to produce these substances inside Syria. And using chemical weapons is his standard modus operandi.'

Tony Blair has insisted the West 'must intervene in Syria'_________________--
'Suppression of truth, human spirit and the holy chord of justice never works long-term. Something the suppressors never get.' David Southwell
http://aangirfan.blogspot.comhttp://aanirfan.blogspot.com
Martin Van Creveld: Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother."
Martin Van Creveld: I'll quote Henry Kissinger: "In campaigns like this the antiterror forces lose, because they don't win, and the rebels win by not losing."

I then contacted Raymond Ibrahim with the following question:
'Re your article 'Syria: Child Tied by U.S.-Supported Jihadis and Forced to Watch Killing of Parents', another site shows that girl and a picture of her later with her heart cut out:

I only just sent the query, so I haven't had a reply yet.
Once clarified, this needs to go viral.
This is what the US, UK, France and their crony 'Coalition' are backing, and indeed fomented from the start.

Headchoppers? Why, the Indonesians (after the US-instigated coup in 1965, and again after the US-backed invasion and occupation of East Timor in 1975 did it; the the US-backed and trained Salvadorean army did it; and of course the US and their 'Coalition' War Criminal cronies' supported proxy mercenary
headchoppers do it.

And the hypocriites talk about a 'War on Terror'!_________________'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.

Free Syrian Army members during the 'Operation Olive Branch' in northwest of Afrin’s Rajo town in Syria, on 15 February 2018 [Beha el Halebi/Anadolu Agency] August 2, 2018 at 1:53 am

Three military factions banded together on Wednesday to form a 100,000-strong fighting force billed as the largest military opposition entity against the Assad regime in Syria’s central Hama and northwest Idlib regions, Anadolu reports.

According to sources in the Syrian opposition, the Syrian Liberation Front and the Suqour al-Sham Brigades joined the National Front for the Liberation of Syria affiliated with the Free Syria Army (FSA).

The sources told Anadolu the development is aimed at the unification of FSA’s factions in one entity.

The National Front of Liberation will continue to operate under Fadlallah al-Haji.

Read: Syrian refugee group returns from Lebanon

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011 when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.

This led to a military conflict between the Syrian opposition groups and the Assad regime over the war-torn country’s territory. Iran has been supporting the Assad regime during the war while Russia intervened in September 2015.

Peace talks were launched in Geneva in 2012 aiming to find a political solution for the conflict while Astana talks began in 2017 discussing cease-fire that has been fragile so far.

Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been killed in the conflict mainly by regime airstrikes targeting opposition-held areas while millions more were displaced. During the conflict, the Assad regime was accused many times by many international actors of targeting Syrian civilians by chemical weapons._________________--
'Suppression of truth, human spirit and the holy chord of justice never works long-term. Something the suppressors never get.' David Southwell
http://aangirfan.blogspot.comhttp://aanirfan.blogspot.com
Martin Van Creveld: Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother."
Martin Van Creveld: I'll quote Henry Kissinger: "In campaigns like this the antiterror forces lose, because they don't win, and the rebels win by not losing."

'We, members of the Global Network for Syria, are deeply alarmed by recent statements by Western governments and officials threatening the government of Syria with military intervention, and by media reports of actions taken by parties in Syria and by Western agencies in advance of such intervention.

In a joint statement issued on 21 August the governments of the US, the UK and France said that ‘we reaffirm our shared resolve to preventing [sic] the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime and for [sic] holding them accountable for any such use… As we have demonstrated, we will respond appropriately to any further use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime’.

The three governments justify this threat with reference to ‘reports of a military offensive by the Syrian regime against civilians and civilian infrastructure in Idlib’.

On 22 August, Mr John Bolton, US National Security Adviser, was reported by Bloomberg to have said that the US was prepared to respond with greater force than it has used in Syria before.

These threats need to be seen in the context of the following reports and considerations.

Reports have appeared of activity by the White Helmets group, or militants posing as White Helmets, consistent with an intention to stage a ‘false flag’ chemical incident in order to provoke Western intervention. These activities have reportedly included the transfer of eight canisters of chlorine to a village near Jisr Al Shughur, an area under the control of Hayat Tahrir Ash Sham, an affiliate of the terrorist group Al Nusra. Some reports refer to the involvement of British individuals and the Olive security company. Other reports indicate a build-up of US naval forces in the Gulf and of land forces in areas of Iraq adjoining the Syrian border.

We therefore urge the US, UK and French governments to consider the following points before embarking on any military intervention:

In the cases of three of the previous incidents cited in the 21 August statement (Ltamenah, Khan Sheykhoun, Saraqib) OPCW inspectors were not able to secure from the militants who controlled these areas security guarantees to enable them to visit the sites, yet still based their findings on evidence provided by militants.
In the case of Douma, also cited, the interim report of OPCW inspectors dated 6 July based on a visit to the site concluded that no evidence was found of the use of chemical weapons and that evidence for the use of chlorine as a weapon was inconclusive.
Western governments themselves acknowledge that Idlib is controlled by radical Islamist extremists. The British government in its statement on 20 August justified its curtailment of aid programmes in Idlib on the grounds that conditions had become too difficult. Any action by the Syrian government would not be directed at harming civilians, but at removing these radical elements.
Any military intervention without a mandate from the United Nations would be illegal.
Any military intervention would risk confrontation with a nuclear armed comember of the Security Council, as well as with the Islamic Republic of Iran, with consequent ramifications for regional as well as global security.
There is no plan in place to contain chaos in the event of sudden government collapse in Syria, such as might occur in the contingency of command and control centres being targeted. Heavy military intervention could result in the recrudescence of terrorist groups, genocide against the Alawite, Christian, Druze, Ismaili, Shiite and Armenian communities, and a tsunami of refugees into neighbouring countries and Europe.
In the event of an incident involving the use of prohibited weapons – prior to taking any decision on military intervention – we urge the US, UK and French governments:

To provide detailed and substantive evidence to prove that any apparent incident could not have been staged by a party wishing to bring Western powers into the conflict on their side.
To conduct emergency consultations with their respective legislative institutions to request an urgent mission by the OPCW to the site of any apparent incident and give time for this mission to be carried out.
To call on the government of Turkey, which has military observation posts in Idlib, to facilitate, in the event of an incident, an urgent mission by the OPCW to the jihadi-controlled area, along with observers from Russia to ensure impartiality.
We further call on the tripartite powers to join Turkish and Russian efforts to head off confrontation between the Syrian government forces and the militants opposing them by separating the most radical organisations such as Hayat Tahrir Ash Sham and Hurras Ad Deen from the rest, eliminating them, and facilitating negotiations between the Syrian government and elements willing to negotiate.

Dr Tim Anderson, University of Sydney

Lord Carey of Clifton, Crossbench Member of the House of Lords and former Archbishop of Canterbury

The Baroness Cox, Crossbench Member of the House of Lords

Peter Ford, British Ambassador to Syria 2003-06

Dr Michael Langrish, former Bishop of Exeter

Lord Stoddart of Swindon, Independent Labour Member of the House of Lords

30 August 2018'

For enquiries contact Peter Ford 07910727317; peterford14@yahoo.com_________________'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.

Syrian state YouTube channels have been shut down this morning just as the Syrian Army's ground offensive has officially begun.

This includes the following now terminated Syrian state and pro-government channels: Syrian Presidency, Syria MoD (Ministry of Defense), SANA, and Sama TV. This follows YouTube reportedly closing Syria's Ortas News last week.

It is unclear whether or not the action is part of a broader move among US social media companies to close "Iran-linked" accounts, or if directly connected to events now rapidly unfolding in Idlib.

A number of Syria observers say the account closures could be connected with potential US plans for military action in response to the Syria-Russian forces air and ground attack on Idlib.

This news comes just as CENTCOM chief Gen. Joseph Dunford said on Saturday the Pentagon is preparing "military options" and is in "routine dialogue" with the White House concerning a potential military response.

Meanwhile Syrian-British journalist Danny Makki, currently tracking events on the ground in Syria, reports: "Huge bombardment in Idlib today by Syrian Forces, over 60 different locations targeted. Shelling all along the frontlines of North Hama also."

"The Idlib offensive will be one of the most complicated, most followed internationally & potentially one of the bloodiest battles of the Syria war," Makki describes further.

Currently, the Twitter accounts for the aforementioned Syrian government channels appear to be active.

Here we go again..._________________--
'Suppression of truth, human spirit and the holy chord of justice never works long-term. Something the suppressors never get.' David Southwell
http://aangirfan.blogspot.comhttp://aanirfan.blogspot.com
Martin Van Creveld: Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother."
Martin Van Creveld: I'll quote Henry Kissinger: "In campaigns like this the antiterror forces lose, because they don't win, and the rebels win by not losing."

Russia’s Defense Ministry says the foreign-backed Takfiri militants have abducted children from Syria’s Aleppo to use them in a staged chemical weapons attack in Idlib to be blamed on the Syrian government.

On Wednesday, Syria’s official news agency SANA quoted the defense ministry as saying that the terrorists kidnapped 22 children with their relatives from Aleppo countryside as well as a group of orphans to use them in a false-flag chemical attack.

The ministry added that the militants are planning to use toxic substances made of chlorine against civilians in Idlib.

Last week, Russia’s military said terrorist groups, including Jabhat an-Nusra, and the Western-backed White Helmets “aid group”, which stands accused of working with Takfiri militants, met in Idlib earlier this month to prepare the final scenarios for the false-flag chemical attack which will target the cities of Jisr ash-Shugur, Serakab, Taftanaz and Sarmin.

PressTV-‘Terrorists, White Helmets meet for false-flag chemical attack’
Russia says terrorists in Syria’s Idlib province have almost completed their preparations for a false-flag chemical attack.
Syria’s Ambassador to the UN Bashar Ja'afari earlier said that Damascus had already submitted information to the UN Security Council that a false-flag chemical attack in Idlib was being prepared by the terrorists. He said they sought to lay the blame on the Syrian government to provoke a Western attack.

Damascus and Moscow have warned that the US, along with Britain and France, is gearing up for a new military attack against Syria as the army prepares for the liberation of Idlib.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem also said the United States was using internationally-banned chemical weapons to invent a pretext for a military campaign against his conflict-plagued Arab country.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with English-language al-Hayat magazine published on Tuesday, Muallem said it was not the first time that chemical attack claims had been used to justify an attack on Syria.

On April 14, the US, Britain and France launched a coordinated missile strike against sites and research facilities near Damascus and Homs with the purported goal of paralyzing the Syrian government’s capability to produce chemicals.

The strike came one week after an alleged gas attack hit the Damascus suburb town of Douma, just as the Syrian army was about to win the battle against the militants there.

The Russian Ministry of Defense Sergei Shoigo slammed Israel on Tuesday, claiming that its "irresponsible actions", led to the downing of a Russian military aircraft and the deaths of 15 servicemen over Latakia, Syria late Monday night. According to Russia, Israel only warned it one minute before launching the strikes.

Russian Defense Minister spoke on the phone with Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman and told him that Moscow holds Israel wholly to blame for the shooting down of a Russian military plane near Syria, Russian news agencies reported.

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Syrian air defense mistakenly shot down a Russian military plane on Monday night while the Syrian regime was targeting multiple missiles flying over Latakia, according to reports. Russia says that its IL-20 plane with 15 servicemen aboard lost contact with radar near Khmeimim air base near Latakia. Russian media said the plane disappeared during “an attack by Israeli F-16s” and claimed to have “registered the launch of missiles from a French frigate.”

A statement by the Russian Ministry of Defense said that "Israeli aircraft deliberately created a dangerous situation for surface ships and aircraft in the area." The Russian statement said that Israel put the Russian plane in danger by flying close to it. "As a result, the IL-20, whose effective reflective surface is an order of magnitude larger than that of the F-16, was shot down by a C-200 missile," the statement noted, indicating that the anti-aircraft missile mistook the Il-20 for a target because it was a larger object than an F-16. Moscow said that Israel would have been aware of the Russian plane's presence as it slowed to land at an altitude of 5km. "They deliberately went through with this provocation." Russian forces were also not warned via a "hotline" from Moscow to Jerusalem, until one minute before the strike. This did not allow the Russian plane to reach a safe area."We regard the provocative actions of Israel as hostile. As a result of the irresponsible actions of the Israeli military, 15 Russian servicemen were killed. This is absolutely not in keeping with the spirit of the Russian-Israeli partnership. We reserve the right to adequate response."

The complex battle that unfolded over Latakia on Monday night illustrates the perils of having so many forces operating in close proximity. In addition to Russian navy and air force in the area, there is Syrian air defense operating Russian-made air defense systems, and there are Turkish forces to the north, Iranian militias and alleged missile production facilities. This area in Latakia and neighboring Hama is only around 100 km wide and includes 80 km of coastline. The Syrian regime has accused Israel of numerous airstrikes over Hama in the last year. On September 6 new satellite images were released showing the consequences of an airstrike near Masyaf which is on the road from Latakia to Hama. On September 2 images from Image Sat International were also released along with a report on an alleged Iranian missile facility in Wadi Jhannam east of Baniyas and about 20km from the Russian naval facility at Tartus.

Syrian state media claimed their air defense was activated around ten in the evening on Monday to confront “foreign objects” coming from the sea. Video showed explosions, burning, and missiles searching skyward for targets. One video appeared to include the sound of low flying aircraft and showed a missile strike a target near a civilian home in the Latakia countryside. Another video from Latakia city itself showed people partying while missiles shot skyward at glowing objects. A photo posted online showed men who appeared to be sitting near the Beauty cocktail bar on the southern Corniche of Latakia, enjoying the view of the bay, while a massive explosion rocked a hill in the distance.

Initially the attack was described as simply “foreign” and pro-Syrian regime social media accounts speculated that it was either carried out by Israel or by the United States using cruise missiles. US Pentagon spokesman Navy Commander Sean Robertson told VOA’s Carla Babb on Monday night that “I can unequivocally say it this is not us.” Soon after Russia reported it had lost contact with its plane. The Ilyushin 20 surveillance prop plane was coming in from the sea. CNN reported that the US became aware of the missing plane because “Syrian forces broadcast an emergency search and rescue radio call.” CNN also reported that a US official “confirmed that Israel was responsible for the missile strikes on the Syrian regime.”

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Russian media specifically alleged that Israeli F-16s were involved. The Russian plane disappeared from radar at 11pm which appears to be almost an hour after the Syrians activated their air defense to confront the initial round of attacks. Pro-Syrian social media accounts claimed that the attacks on Syria included strikes not only in Latakia countryside but also in Hama, near Baniyas and Tartus. Because of the proximity of these areas it is possible that missiles flying over Latakia from the sea, for instance, and heading for Hama could be mistaken for targeting two different places.

The scale of the strikes surprised the Syrian regime and set in motion a string of events that led to them shooting wildly and downing the aircraft of their own ally. This should not have happened, but it appears to reveal that Syrian air defenses do not monitor the flights of their Russian colleagues, or that the air defenses did not operate properly and inadvertently targeted a friendly aircraft as opposed to an enemy. To distract from the failure, both Russia and the Syrian regime have pointed fingers at the French frigate Auvergne.

The air battles over Latakia came hours after Turkey and Russia had agreed to a buffer in nearby Idlib that would prevent a Syrian regime offensive. In Moscow there would have been calm after the discussions, with the looming battle postponed. Russia has had a naval presence off the coast of Syria in the wake of a large naval exercise earlier this month. The ships were likely in place in case the Idlib conflict increased. In addition, Moscow has been in a war of words with western states, accusing Syrian rebels in Idlib of preparing a “false flag” attack of chemical weapons that would give the US an excuse for more air strikes. France is one of the countries that might have joined in those air strikes. This presents a complex and toxic mix of naval maneuvering off the coast of Latakia. It was in this context that the Russian plane was shot down, amid a crowded sky and coastline involving ships and planes of various countries.

The wild night over Latakia points to the potential for escalating conflict. Even as Turkey and Russia thought they had forestalled an Idlib battle, the airstrikes on Latakia show that one wrong move could lead to a mistake. Russia has its own air defense in northern Syria, including the S-400 system. Speculation has stirred over whether Russia would activate the system to protect its Syrian ally or to protect air strikes targeting Iranian targets in Syria. It appears the system was not used last night. With both Russia and the US pointing the finger at Israel over the airstrikes so soon after they occurred the tensions in Latakia are also higher than usual. Usually both Moscow and Washington remain tight lip on assigning blame for the numerous airstrikes on Syria.

'..Citing humanitarian concerns, Washington has now signaled that even a conventional attack on Idlib, branded by Moscow "a terrorist nest," could result in military action from the US and its allies. The Syrian military is reportedly preparing to launch an offense to liberate the northwestern province from the jihadists.

Idlib, it seems, is different: The US military has always found a way to justify its anti-terrorism operations – even in urban areas. In fact, as Nicolas J. S. Davies, author of 'Blood On Our Hands: The American Invasion and Destruction of Iraq', told RT, the US military continues to loosen its rules of engagement so that its bombing campaigns don’t run into any red tape.

“The Obama administration had already loosened rules of engagement in the war against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq to permit more killing of civilians in the bombing campaign the US conducted,” Davies said.

“They expended over 100,000 bombs and missiles to destroy cities like Raqqa and Mosul. President Trump has reportedly loosened rules of engagement further.”...'

'..The US is obviously struggling to justify its military presence on Syrian territory as it uses officials and biased media to prepare the world for a new round of aggression against the Arab republic, Zakharova told reporters at her news conference on Thursday. The purpose of such rhetoric is simple – to change the “vector” of events in the country, which turned toward a peaceful course just last year.
“We see in Washington’s actions an attempt to artificially prolong an armed standoff and fratricidal bloodshed in Syria by saving the Al-Qaeda-linked terrorists from final defeat,” the diplomat stated.

US actions in Syria must meet strong resistance, otherwise the whole world will be brought “to the brink of the abyss.” The situation around the war-torn country demonstrates that Washington is attempting to create global domination for one goal – to build up a striking coalition of leading Western states and further use it to offer a military solution to any problem occurring in the world.

The Foreign Ministry reiterated Moscow’s repeated warnings that militants are plotting to stage a false-flag attack in Syria and continue their preparations for it. Earlier the Russian military revealed that the controversial group operating solely in militant-controlled areas, the White Helmets, shot at least nine videos intended for use against the Syrian government to pin the blame on it for the staged incident....'_________________'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.

'The Dirty Little Secret About Why the USA is in Syria':
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=605G8FMeO6Y
Very interesting and accurate documentary._________________'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.

'The Rothschild Syria Connection - Major Revelations':
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhTMy9ma2mQ
Very good video documentary, lots of info on Trump, but not sure about the Rothschild telling the West to attack Syria, as it seems the primary source was 'Your News Wire', which often puts out fake news.
Though it would make sense._________________'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.

'PUTIN: RUSSIAN FORCES INTERCEPTED 50 MILITANT UAVS OVER THEIR AIRBASE IN SYRIA DURING LAST 2 MONTHS':
https://southfront.org/putin-russian-forces-intercepted-50-militant-ua vs-over-their-airbase-in-syria/
'..On October 25, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Colonel General Alexander Fomin stated that the January 6 UAV attack on Hmeimim airbase was coordinated by a US Poseidon-8 reconnaissance plane...'
(see video in link)._________________'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.

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